A Study of Fire Safety within Kariobangi Light Industries

Abstract

The aim of the research was to study fire safety within Kariobangi Light Industries, Nairobi County, Kenya. This industrial cluster is characterized by poor infrastructure and numerous concrete buildings which house small to medium scale enterprise industries in go downs on the ground floor and low-income residential apartments on the floors above. Specifically, the research sought to assess fire safety awareness among the business community operating within the industrial cluster. Purposive sampling was used to select the industries licensed to operate therein in the year 2014.The Bivariate Pearson correlation analysis shows that there is a significant positive correlation between fire safety awareness among the business community and their implementation of the same (p = .000). The linear regression analysis results showed that fire safety awareness impacts significantly on the implementation of fire safety (p = .000). It can therefore, be concluded that fire safety awareness among the business community is vital in the improvement of fire safety standards within the industrial cluster. The study recommends that the Nairobi Fire Services and (or) the Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health Services should implement fire safety awareness programs to benefit the business community.